Athletics News

Hopkins Places 30th in 2000-2001 Sears Cup Standings

June 14, 2001

BALTIMORE, Md. - For the fifth consecutive year, the Johns Hopkins University athletic program has earned a top 30 finish in the NCAA III Sears Directors' Cup standings as JHU placed 30th in the final 2000-2001 standings. In all, seven Blue Jay teams participated in NCAA Championships during the 2000-2001 academic year, helping Hopkins accumulate 342.5 points. Williams (MA) claimed its fifth NCAA III Sears Directors' Cup title in the last six years as the Ephs tallied 897.5 points to easily out-distance second-place Middlebury (728.5 points).

Johns Hopkins earned 70 points during the spring as the men's lacrosse team advanced to the NCAA Quarterfinals to earn 40 points, while the baseball team picked up 30 points with a third-place finish at the NCAA Division III Mid-Atlantic Regional. JHU's 30th-place finish was secured in large part by the presence of three teams in NCAA Championships during the winter season. The men's and women's swimming teams led the way for the Blue Jays in the winter as the men placed third at the NCAA Championships to pick up 83 points, while the women finished fifth and added 79 points. The women's fencing team also picked up 30.5 points in the winter with a 21st-place finish at the NCAA Championships. The men's soccer team (50 points) and the field hockey team (30) also picked up valuable points in the fall.

Johns Hopkins placed 49th in the inaugural NCAA III Sears Directors' Cup Standings in 1996, but moved to a program-best 16th place in 1997 and added 24th (1998), 25th (1999), and 21st (2000) place showings in each of the last three years before this year's 30th-place showing. Hopkins is the only Centennial Conference school which has placed in the top 30 in any of the last five years and is one of just three UAA schools to record top-30 finishes in each of the those years as well.

Points in the Sears Directors' Cup are accumulated by a school's finish in any of 18 championships (9 men and 9 women) sponsored by the NCAA. There were 395 eligible colleges and universities competing for the 2000-2001 Sears Directors' Cup at the NCAA III level and 270 of them (68%) earned points in the competition during the year. Using this as a benchmark, Johns Hopkins ranks among the top eight percent of all NCAA Division III athletic programs.

The Sears Directors' Cup programs is the only all-sports competition that recognizes an institution in each of the four categories with the best overall athletics program. In addition to Williams, Stanford (NCAA Division I), UC Davis (NCAA Division II), and Simon Fraser (NAIA) also won titles. The Sears Directors' Cup is part of the Sears Collegiate Champions program which annually awards more than 2,200 conference and sport champion trophies and $100,000 in postgraduate academic scholarships.